Doctor Not Guilty In Patients' Eyes

Felix Figueroa considers his family doctor more than just somebody to take the kids to when they've got colds. He thinks of him as a friend.

With no job or medical insurance, Figueroa found there were times when he just couldn't afford to pay for care for himself; his wife, Maria, and their five children.

But the Allentown family never went without the necessary medical care, because Figueroa knew that he could always depend on his doctor

"If you don't have the money, Felix, don't worry about it," Figueroa recalls Hutsko saying on several occasions.

"Maria, you never find people like that today," the Puerto Rican emigre, moved to tears, told his wife after leaving Hutsko's office at 111 Susquehanna St. in Allentown.

So when Figueroa read of Hutsko's arrest last December on charges of Medicaid fraud and improper dispensing of diet pills, Figueroa was understandably shocked.

And on Easter Monday when a Lehigh County jury found Hutsko guilty, Figueroa was absolutely stunned.

"I still don't believe it," he said. "He's such a gentleman."

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Like Felix Figueroa, many of Hutsko's patients express disbelief that a doctor who treated them with such compassion could be guilty of practicing shabby medicine and collecting from Medicare for ineligible services.

But in the eyes of the law, he is a criminal - one of a small percentage of doctors the state says are responsible for escalating Medicaid costs and irresponsibly prescribing drugs that are often abused by recipients and make their way into the illegal drug trade.

The state Bureau of Narcotics estimates that diversion of prescription drugs by physicians, pharmacists and other sources may account for half the illegal drugs in the street.

Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) statistics indicate that abuse of prescription drugs by far exceeds abuse of illegally obtained drugs. DEA statistics indicate three of every four drug-related emergencies and deaths result from overdoses of prescription drugs.

The state Legislature, the attorney general's office and the governor all say it's time something is done about it.

Just three days ago Gov. Thornburgh signed into law provisions that will automatically revoke the license of a doctor, osteopath, pharmacist or other health care professional convicted of a drug-related felony.

The official concern was underscored recently by a DEA report that showed more amphetamine and secobarbital were consumed in Pennsylvania in 1983 than anywhere else in the nation. The state's per capita consumption of several drugs, including quaaludes, was second, and Pennsylvanians were among the top 10 consumers of 12 of the 22 drugs monitored through the federal Drug Awareness Warning Network.

The state attorney general's office says this was just the kind of problem it had in mind when it sent two undercover agents - one from the Medicaid Fraud unit, the other a narcotics investigator - into Hutsko's office last May.

"This case was not opened at random," says Robert Gensel, spokesman for the attorney general, "but because this office received allegations, some through the Allentown police department vice squad, that Dr. Hutsko was improperly supplying drugs to abusers and was engaging in Medicaid fraud."

Neither the attorney general's office nor the Allentown police would provide details on the allegations that triggered the investigation. They were not mentioned during the trial.

Hutsko says he was unaware of any complaint, but indicated that once a patient leaves the office there is no way a doctor can control what the patient does with the drugs.

But while the jury agreed with the state, there remains considerable doubt among many of Hutsko's colleagues and patients about the desirability of the method used to convict him. They believe Hutsko was entrapped.

Citing the doctor's good name and reputation for providing medical care to the poor - sometimes at no cost - Hutsko supporters maintain he would not have committed the offenses had he not been enticed by the state's investigators.

"Quite frankly, he's the victim," said Dr. P. Denis Kuehner of South Whitehall Township. "The state set him up. If that's not entrapment, I don't know what is."

"They can't get the drugs on the streets, so they pick on normal people, figuring 'maybe they'll make a mistake, and we'll grab them,' " said Barbara El Jizi. "He's being railroaded."

Hutsko, an osteopath, continues to practice, pending an appeal in Lehigh County Court that could take months to decide. If the conviction stands, he could face stiff fines and a jail sentence.

Meantime, the state Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners could revoke Hutsko's license to practice medicine. Michele Miloy, a spokeswoman, would neither confirm nor deny that the board is looking into the Hutsko case. She said, however,the board could act before the appeal is decided.